SKATING DOWN MEMORY LANE.

Following on from our deluge of letters about the Regal Cinema, this week we print a selection of memories from the Purley Ice Rink, which was just a few doors down from the cinema and part of the same leisure complex.

Jean Cook, from Lorne Gardens, Croydon, writes: "I was a teenager during the second world war and can clearly recall the winter of 1942, when a party of my young friends and I went to the Imperial ice rink one evening with new skates.

"We had been hiring skates from the rink but found them ankle-soft from much use, so we bought our own. Mine were about £4 from Allders, new. I had also made and dyed my dress for the occasion and felt very glam.

"Due to the new skates and my inexperience, I lost balance many times and left navy blue patches all round the rink. My dyed dress had left its mark.

"The French Canadians were billeted in Croydon at the Shirley Park Hotel and used the rink regularly. Because of their experienced performances on ice, the evenings were split into sessions for speed skating, intermediate and beginners.

"We were beginners of course, but the soldiers would skate gently round picking us up and guiding us to the barriers to start again.

"They were good memories of great companionships and many friends and I am sorry to see the demise of such lovely buildings. Such is progress."

Margaret Arnold, from Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, writes: "The rink holds many memories for myself and quite a few of my friends and family. During the war my brother, cousin and a number of my office colleagues were at the rink at least three evenings a week.

"Often a crowd of guards from Caterham barracks would descend and try out their skills (mostly non-existent) and what fun we had trying to teach them to skate. Sometimes in between sessions there was an ice hockey game which was great, especially when French Canadians came to cheer their side on and all through the match were stamping their feet and chanting `We want blood.'

"We were all very sorry when the rink was closed but at least we have our memories of happy times spent there."

Mr G Burton, from Dovercourt Avenue, Thornton Heath, concludes: "I can remember quite well having a good time ice skating at the rink and then walking to the tram terminus in Purley High Street.

"Us youngsters, I was 16 or 17 then, used to sit in a group and have a laugh or a sing-song on the way back to Croydon - nobody minded people singing during the war."

n Do you have any memories of any aspect of Croydon's heritage? The number of letters we have received on the Regal Cinema and ice rink suggests there are plenty of other places in the borough you must remember fondly. Write to: Gary Taphouse, Heritage Column, Croydon Guardian, Guardian House, Sandiford Road, Sutton, Surrey SM3 9RN.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.